Breakdown of El rinoceronte es enorme; lo sentí caminar cerca de mí.
ser
to be
de
from / of
cerca
close / near
caminar
to walk
Questions & Answers about El rinoceronte es enorme; lo sentí caminar cerca de mí.
Why does lo go before sentí instead of attaching it to caminar?
With perception verbs like sentir (to feel), the direct object pronoun (lo, referring to the rhino) goes before the conjugated verb. Unlike other verb combos, you cannot attach the pronoun to the infinitive in this specific structure. It must be lo sentí caminar.
The English translation says 'walking', so why did we use the infinitive caminar instead of the gerund caminando?
After verbs of physical perception, Spanish commonly uses the infinitive to express an action you witnessed or felt. You can also use the gerund (caminando) to emphasize that the action was in progress. Both are perfectly correct here, even though English almost always uses the '-ing' form.
Why do we use lo instead of le to mean 'him' here?
The rhinoceros is the direct object of the verb sentir—it is the entity being felt. For direct objects, we use lo (masculine) or la (feminine). Le is an indirect object pronoun, used when an action is done to or for someone.
Why does the sentence use mí with an accent mark in cerca de mí?